Because of the multifunction nature of the present device, prior art is in more than one field of invention. It is in knee pads for kneeling labor, yoga props and padding, meditation supports, and miscellaneous other cushions for the head and body.
1. Prior Art—Kneepads for Kneeling Manual Labor
The knee is susceptible to injury and gradual deterioration, especially with overuse and age. To address the need for knee protection during kneeling manual labor, many kneepads have a horseshoe shape so that the top of the knee fits inside the upper curve of the horseshoe, and the shin passes through the horseshoe opening. Others have shaping or molding that requires a specific orientation. Existing kneepads are not easily adapted for different sizes of knee or leg and are relatively complex and therefore expensive to produce. They are often bulky, have straps, or they have shaping that makes them hard to grasp quickly. For quicker tasks or shorter time spent on the knee, they are often considered too much trouble to locate, orient properly, strap on, and so forth. So the laborer will go without a kneepad and suffer incremental gradual damage to the knee.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,322, Feb. 9, 1988, inventor James E. Shelby, claims a strapless molded knee-pad with a contoured indent. The combination of the large bottom surface and no through-hole, means that the device is hard to grasp quickly. The large bottom surface makes the device bulky and somewhat inconvenient to store, retrieve, and use. What is needed is an improvement to the U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,322 design wherein the kneepad is convenient to grasp and reposition, and is less bulky.
U.S. D660136, May 22, 2012, Anita L. Jarowenko, has a similar large bottom surface, and no through-hole.
There are larger one-piece knee cushion supports designed to protect both knees at once, which have recesses or contoured indents to hold the knees. These are bulky and not adaptable for different knee spacing or positioning. An example is shown in U.S. D472679, Apr. 1, 2003, inventor Wayne L. Burington. There is a need for a lightweight, and versatile kneepad that fits easily in a pants pocket, straps quickly to a tool caddy, and is not cumbersome.
Patent DE 202004013382, Nov. 3, 2005, inventor Fraatz Ingrid Schenkhut, claims a circular knee cushion that is lightweight and inexpensive. This knee cushion is ring shaped rather than horseshoe shaped, so in its strapless form it has the advantages of not needing the finicky attention of a particular orientation during use. In the DE 202004013382 knee cushion, there is a flat upper surface, a flat lower surface, and a columnar recess from top to bottom in the middle of the cushion. The knee to be cushioned goes into the recess, with the cushion between the knee and the floor. The sides of the recess meet the top surface with an abrupt edge, like a corner, so that a cross section of the ring shaped body forms a rectangle with 90 degree corners. This design has the disadvantage of no shaping to cup the knee inside the recess. The shape of the recess is not ergonomic and not contoured to support the rounded shape of the human knee during kneeling manual labor. Also the columnar recess with abrupt edges is less able to accommodate knees of different sizes or shapes. What is needed is an improvement to the DE 202004013382 design wherein the recess is contoured, distributing the body weight against a larger surface area and thereby increasing the comfort of the knee as it presses against the cushion body. An additional desired improvement would be to allow, from one configuration, for knees of many different sizes and shapes to rest within, protected from the floor or other supporting surface.
2. Prior Art—Yoga Props and Padding, and Meditation Supports
Yoga continues to gain popularity around the world as a boon to mankind. Many yoga styles have been developed to allow people of different ages, fitness levels, injury status, and body types to reap the considerable benefits to mind and body from this ancient art. A session executing yoga is called a yoga practice. Also a regular routine of yoga is called a yoga practice. People who execute yoga are called yoga practitioners. The positions used during yoga to realize its benefits, are called poses, postures, or asanas.
In yoga, many props, padding devices, and cushioning approaches are used for specific purposes, and some, like the standard yoga block or standard yoga blanket, have the advantage of being multifunction. But current yoga prop choices have deficiencies, and considering the vast population of yoga practitioners and the benefits to humankind that yoga can provide, there is a need for a simple, lightweight, inexpensive multifunction device that provides cushioning, support, and alignment, and that is adaptable to all styles of yoga and also the sizes, shapes, and abilities of people practicing yoga. Beginning yoga practitioners would especially benefit from increased comfort and reduced risk of injury, to encourage them to maintain their practice.
In yoga classes today, knee cushioning in poses where the knee bears weight, such as hands and knees pose, or lunge pose, is ad hoc. Practitioners fold over their mats to provide more layers between their knee and the floor, or they place a folded yoga blanket under their knees, or they grab their socks and bunch them up under their knees. This finicky positioning of cumbersome articles that are not purposed designed, is a lot of trouble, and so people frequently expose themselves to potential knee damage by not using knee protection.
Many yoga practitioners struggle with strain or injury in their wrists. Downward facing dog pose is used frequently during yoga classes for its many benefits, but this pose places great body weight on the wrists. There is a need for a simple, inexpensive prop that can be placed quickly under the palm of the hand during poses that require the wrist to bear weight. When the palm is lifted a little bit, the wrist is not so sharply bent and weight is redistributed away from the wrist itself and down into the palm and the rest of the hand, reducing strain and the risk of injury. U.S. Pat. No. 8,460,160, inventor Elizabeth M. Andrews, issue date Jun. 11, 2013 is for a wrist saving yoga device consisting of a rectangular cushioned pad to be strapped to the palm, lifting it slightly and thereby achieving the desired relief from the sharp wrist bend and thereby also achieving weight redistribution. But the weight bearing surface of the U.S. Pat. No. 8,460,160 wrist saver device, though cushioned, is not contoured to fit the bones of the palm and therefore does not provide the additional degree of comfort that contouring would provide. Also the device has the disadvantage of being single-purpose and the required strap makes it relatively complex in design.
In yoga seated poses such as hero pose or staff pose, the ideal is to achieve an erect spinal alignment without undue strain. This is easier if each sitbone, namely the bone inside each buttock that bears weight during sitting, is lifted. The degree of lift required varies by person, from a couple of centimeters, to much more. Most frequently practitioners use a standard yoga block or a folded blanket in seated poses, to raise the sitbones and achieve proper spinal alignment with ease. A standard yoga block is a few inches high at the lowest setting, which often provides more height than is needed. It is relatively hard, doesn't contour to the sitbones, and is bulky. A folded blanket allows for greater flexibility in degree of lift and is soft, but it needs to be folded correctly to provide the desired lift and it is finicky to position correctly. Also, there is always the suspicion that shared blankets in a public yoga class might not be laundered frequently, or might accumulate undesired fragrances from body products such as shampoo or perfume. There are single purpose meditation cushions that are specifically designed to provide comfort and lift during sitting, but these are bulky and not commonly used during yoga.
At the end of most yoga practices is the restorative pose called corpse pose, which is a deep rest while lying on the back. Sometimes a folded blanket is used to raise the head in such a way that the chin points slightly downward, thereby achieving a particular neck alignment which is known to be calming to the nervous system. But a deeper relaxation could be achieved if the head were not only slightly lifted with the chin angled downward, but also prevented from rolling side to side in cases where either the head and neck achieved a further degree of muscular relaxation, or the practitioner actually fell asleep. In corpse pose with no blanket under the head, or in corpse pose with a blanket under the head, the practitioner is prevented from achieving a further level of relaxation by the possibility that the head could roll to one side or the other. What is needed is a device that lifts the head a little bit and brings the chin downward, thereby calming the nervous system, and also provides side to side support, preventing the head from rolling to one side or the other.
3. Prior Art—Other Doughnut Shaped Cushions for the Head and Body
Doughnut shaped cushions exist in the form of coccyx pillows, designed to relieve pressure on the base of the spine, or provide comfort to hemorroid sufferers or others with injury or disease in that area. The two sitbones rest directly on either side of a large circular cushion body. These cushions serve a specific single-use medical purpose, which is to remove all weight while sitting, from the base of the spine. They contain no contouring to cup the sitbones themselves.
Doughnut shaped cushions also exist to cushion an infant's head. These single-purpose cushions are not of sufficient density or appropriate design to cushion adult human bones during weight-bearing activity.
U.S. D456660, Aug. 7, 1990, inventor Dag Landvik, shows a small round contoured head-pillow that has a contoured top surface as well as a contoured bottom surface. This pillow lacks a through-hole, that would make it easier to grasp, reposition, or compress for storage.